Upcoming Koha Events

January General IRC Meeting

Marseille Hackfest
by Paul Poulain

In 2011 and 2012 BibLibre organized Koha hackfests in its office. Those hackfests were a success. All BibLibre staff were very happy to work with the community, and people that came were very happy, too.

In 2012, ten french librarians were here and we split into small groups or four or five people, focusing on various technical or non-technical tasks.

We’ve decided to organize another hackfest in Marseille, 18-22 March 2013.

I already know that two staff from ByWater Solutions will be coming from the USA, so it won’t be a “European hackfest”, but a “hackfest in Europe”. I hope the Koha release manager will be able to attend, and everybody is welcome! Just contact me if you plan to join us.

Past Koha Events

December General IRC Meeting

First National Portuguese Koha Meeting
by Rafael Antonio

The first national meeting of the Portuguese Koha community was held on 28 November 2012 at the Lisbon Polytechnic Institute. The meeting was a great success, with nearly 200 people attending from university, public, and other libraries from all over the country.

The Portuguese community is growing, and one of largest libraries, Lisbon University’s (Universidade Técnica de Lisboa), is now replacing legacy systems with Koha. Some public libraries are also adopting Koha, indicating that in the future Koha will be the preferred ILS in Portugal.

During this meeting we announced the koha.pt site, managed by Portuguese community, which we plan to use as a platform for cooperation between all users.

New Hampshire User Group Meeting
by Diane Arrato Gavrish

The Southern New Hampshire Library Cooperative, made up of Plaistow Public Library, Sandown Public Library, and the Kimball Library in Atkinson, New Hampshire, USA, hosted an informal Koha users group meeting at the Local Government Center in Concord, NH, on 27 November.

The meeting was attended by approximately 20 librarians, trustees, and friends, who were all either currently using Koha hosting by ByWater Solutions or thinking about it within the near future. Representatives from the NH State Library also attended and gained valuable information about open source, ByWater, and Koha.

Discussions included issues and concerns with migration, training, marketing, and communication. Since the hosting libraries were combining working with ByWater and Koha with the creation of a lending cooperative, many questions were fielded about both processes. The attending group decided that other such gatherings would be very valuable; times and places will be discussed in the early part of the new year.